A Wild West town is up for sale for $7.5 million — in New Zealand
If the past few months have left you in need of a getaway, this could be just the ticket.
A replica Wild West town deep in rural New Zealand has been put on the market — and if you have $7.5 million to spare, it’s yours.
Mellonsfolly Ranch was built with meticulous attention detail in 2006, intended to resemble 1860s Wyoming. It features a boardwalk, a sheriff’s office, a courthouse that doubles as a movie theater, and even a licensed saloon.
The property, which operates as a hotel and is well-hidden in a vast hilly landscape in central New Zealand, offers buyers a fairly unique opportunity to recreate every Western movie they’ve ever seen — when they’re not looking after guests, that is.
All the hallmarks of a Western experience are available: billiards, swing doors, wood paneling and fireplaces, and some charmingly old-timey exteriors.
But it’s not all fun and games. Real-estate agents New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty describe the tough day-to-day experience that any prospective cowboys would have to endure.
“Summer is for hunting, fishing and swimming in the rivers that wind their way through valleys,” they write in their description of the ranch. “And during winter, (the owners) benefit from the nearby picturesque ski town of Ohakune and the Mount Ruapehu ski fields.”
Located in rural Ruatiti, in the center of New Zealand’s North Island, the ranch is surrounded by almost deserted countryside.
In 2018, New Zealand passed restrictions on foreigners buying homes, to stem skyrocketing house prices. But, being a business rather than a residence, Mellonsfolly Ranch is exempt.
The property features 20 beds and 10 bathrooms — and a manuka honey business on the side.
It’s not the first Old Western town to go on the market. Genuine ghost towns from the era have found new owners across the United States, including a deserted Californian township that went for $1.4 million in 2018.
Another town, Dunton in Colorado, was converted into a luxury resort a century after being deserted.